secures the ark against the entrance of the waters. The fountains of the great deep are broken up, the windows of heaven are opened, and one universal flood desolates the earth. The waters rise even above the mountains; and every creature that moveth on the face of the earth, or beateth the air with its wings, is destroyed.

Awful-most awful is the destruction! The families of mankind, and all their labors, are covered by the inundating waves and seen no more. The valleys first receive the impetuous streams, and the labors of the husbandmen with their flocks and herds are swept away. The affrighted inhabitants ascend the neighbouring hills and obtain a short respite from the impending ruin. But not even the summit of the lofty mountain is a secure refuge for those who would fly from the fate which pursues them. The waters climb the mountain's side, and the wretched groups that cover its green head, behold with dismay the verdure receding from their eyes, and themselves surrounded by a waste of waters, extending as far as the eye can reach; whilst here and there its foaming surface is tinged with a dark green spot, covered with groups as wretched as themselves, whose uplifted hands and frantic cries bespeak the agonies of despair. The father draws his children round him, the mother presses her babe closer to her trembling breast; friend clings to friend-but it is in vain. Now spray washes their feet-now the waves encircle them —and now, with one convulsive cry, parents and children, the young, the blooming, and the aged, sink in the abyss, and the wave rolls in awful majesty above them. "Tis

the

past! and the spot whereon they stood is buried in the deep. What a spectacle for Noah! To witness the war of elements-the tempest pouring down its torrents-and the deep breaking over its bounds and deluging the earth, must have shaken his soul. But when he saw the accumulating horrors of the flood; when villages and towns, with all their inhabitants rapidly disappeared from his sight, and of the perishing smote upon his ear, dismay and horror would almost paralyze his frame. How would he lament that the iniquity of his brethren had been so great, that they had refused to listen to his admonitions, and had continued with fatal obstinacy in a course of life which had been thus awfully and abruptly terminated!

the

cry

So perished a guilty world. So the great Ruler of heaven and earth manifested his power, and poured forth his indignation upon the iniquitous and impious of the days of Noah. Truly we may say, with the Psalmist, "Come and see the works of God: he is terrible in his doings towards the children of men." Their iniquities could not be pardoned: vengeance was due, and He took ample vengeance on those who knew not God. The power which directs the course of nature for the support of all creatures, and especially for the support and the happiness of the human race, was compelled to arrest that course, and to make the elements the instruments of destruction to a rebellious and ungodly world. Their end was indeed destruction. In the midst of their impure enjoyments and the prosecution of their unjust designs; whilst they said to their souls, Eat, drink and be merry; whilst they were

swift to contrive and execute schemes of cruelty and oppression; in the midst of all, their life was taken from them, and they, with all their possessions, became the prey. of the avenging flood.

One family, however, survived the destruction of their race. Noah with his wife and children, secure in their spacious vessel, ride safely over the conflicting waters; preserved on account of the righteousness of the patriarch, and designed to re-people the desolated earth. For months they moved slowly over the vast ocean, till, the waters beginning to subside, the ark rested on one of the mountains of the east. But it was not the work of a moment to repair the evils of such a deluge, and they were obliged to remain much longer imprisoned in their abode. By degrees the mountain tops appeared. Higher and higher they seemed to rise, whilst the waters sunk away, till the streams ran more confined from the valleys, and islands and continents took their present form. The sun exhaled the moisture from the reviving earth, and Noah impatiently awaited the moment of deliverance from the ark. Twice he sent forth a dove, and the second time she returned with an olive-branch as a proof that the lowlands were free from water. He opened the ark and was rejoiced to look once more upon the green bosom of the earth. After another short interval had elapsed, God himself called to him, and bade him remove from the now unnecessary shelter, and give liberty to all the creatures which had been his inmates, that they might go forth and multiply in the earth.

Sweet must have been his sensations, when he led forth his happy family from the ark which had been for more than a year their gloomy abode, in which they had often shuddered at the horrors of the flood, and the cries of their perishing fellow-creatures. But how changed was the scene! When the ark received them as its inmates, all around was life and bustle. Planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, occupied the attention of the busy and heedless mortals, while the sound of the laborer, the peal of laughter, and the shout of noisy mirth, were heard around. Alas! how changed from what it was! No human being met their eye; nor friend nor relative greeted them when they stept again upon the earth, and felt themselves free to dwell there. Silence and desolation reigned around; and the fate of his brethren, and the cheerless aspect of nature, filled the patriarch's mind with sadness. Still, he did not forget, that he and they who were dearest to him, had been saved from the general wreck; that his and their life had been preserved, though all besides had perished; and he called upon them to prostrate themselves before that Being who had preserved them, and permitted them again to breathe the refreshing air, and to resume their life-supporting labors.

Noah builds an altar to Jehovah, and, assembling his family around it, offers up the sacrifice which gratitude prompted as an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God, and of the mercy with which he had visited the patriarch. The sacrifice found acceptance with the God of the Universe. In the words of Scripture, Jehovah smelled a

sweet savour. His goodness had not been manifested to an unworthy object; and the flame which consumed the sacrifice betokened, as it rose to heaven, the pious feelings of the man who had been so wonderfully distinguished from the rest of his race. And Jehovah said in his heart, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease." The course of the seasons had been interrupted during the melancholy year of the deluge, but the Divine Ruler decided that there should be no such interruption in any future age of the world. From that period to the present, the seasons have run their course, vivifying the earth, and ripening its fruits, and producing those supplies, without which, all creatures would pine and die, and the earth become again a scene of desolation.

This striking portion of history excites feelings both of a painful and pleasurable nature in the mind. Melancholy is the contemplation of an act of Almighty justice, so extensive and overwhelming as the deluge! Painful and humbling is the conviction, that the nature we wear has ever been so defiled by wickedness and profligacy as to require an almost universal obliteration. Was there no one but Noah to rescue man from the shame of universal depravity? none but he worthy of life, when the penalty of death was incurred by such vast numbers? Was there no